Pokemon Sinnoh Handbook

Guest Author - Lesley Aeschliman

The Pokemon Sinnoh Handbook was released to give information about the Pokemon that are part of Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl. The book opens with some introductory pages. The first page explains why the book was written. The second page explains what the reader will find on the page for each Pokemon: the Pokemon's name, what species it is, a pronunciation guide for the Pokemon's name, its possible moves, what Pokemon type it is, its height and weight, its evolution chain, and interesting facts about the Pokemon.

Five of the Pokemon also have a special "Remember When..." box included in their entries for trivia from the television series. Those five are Abra, Blissey, Cleffa, Golduck, and Seaking.

The next two pages are an introduction to the Sinnoh region. These pages explain how a trainer starts out in the region: the town the trainer needs to go to in order to acquire their starter Pokemon, the name of the Pokemon expert they see in that town, as well as what the three starter Pokemon are for the Sinnoh region.

After all of the Pokemon pages, there is an appendix titled, "Ash & Friends." This section gives brief biographies for Ash, Brock, and Dawn; included on each trainer's page are pictures of which Pokemon they have. At the bottom of each Pokemon's picture is the page number that Pokemon's information appears on in the book. At the very back of the book is a fold-out poster with all the Pokemon featured in the book; just like the book, the Pokemon are in alphabetical order.

From the design of the book, as well as the way the book is written, it's obvious that children are the intended audience for the book. However, there is valuable information included, so adults shouldn't shy away from purchasing the Pokemon Sinnoh Handbook.

Personally, there were a couple of problems I had with the book. First, I did find a couple of mistakes: Blissey's height was included but the weight was left off, and Cherubi's Solarbeam attack is listed twice under its possible moves. Also, while reading through the book, I found myself wishing that the Pokemon's possible moves were listed in alphabetical order; it just felt like there was no rhyme or reason behind how the Pokemon's possible moves were listed.

Outside of those two issues, though, I would recommend the Pokemon Sinnoh Handbook for Pokemon fans and collectors, both young and old.

I wrote this review after looking through a copy of this book that my husband and I bought for our older daughter.